1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand written character input system, and more particularly, to a handwritten character input system allowing change of size of character writing frames.
2. Description of the Background Art
Keyboards and mouses are known a dominant input devices for conventional computer systems such as a document processor. However, operation of these devices are not natural human operation, and therefore it takes time and labor to be accustomed to such operation.
A system in which the user can designate a position by means of a pen, or in which writing of the user by a pen can be recognized and input has been attracting attention as means to solve the above described problem. Such system is generally configured as to allow the user to write characters one by one on a character writing frame.
Also, there has been proposed a system including a plurality of character writing frames, to which plurality of character writing frames the user write characters, the result of recognition is edited on the character writing frames (for example, correction, insertion or deletion is effected), and the character train is fed to the computer.
Though such systems are used in various opportunities by various users, the number and size of the character writing frames are fixed in the conventional system. This is one reason why the conventional system for handwritten character input is not very convenient.
For example, for a user having weak eye sight, larger character writing frame is preferred since it allows easier writing and easier confirmation of the hand writings and displays. On the contrary, if the size of the character writing frame is too large, the displayed character writing frame may be overlapped with other displays such as sentences and items, hindering smooth operation.
Meanwhile, if only a small number of characters are to be input, for example, when an item or heading is to be input, smaller number of character writing frames is preferred. When a large number of characters are to be input, for example, sentences are to be input, larger number of character writing frames is preferred. However, if the number of character writing frames is too large, the display space for the character writing frames may hinder smooth operation.
As described above, since the number and size of the character writing frames are fixed in the conventional handwritten character input system, for some users or some display screen, it is not very easy to operate.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 61-243581 discloses a handwritten character input apparatus which allows change of the size of the character writing frames.
Japanese Utility Model Laying Open-No. 5-66765 discloses an on-line character recognizing apparatus in which number or size of the character writing frames can be changed. These apparatuses are configured such that the number or size itself of the character writing frame can be directly changed by the user.